How AI Is Already Reshaping White-Collar Work | WSJ

0:00- [Narrator] The idea of robots taking human jobs

0:02might bring to mind a scene like this.

0:06But it's not hardware

0:08that has white collar workers concerned.

0:10It's rapidly advancing software,

0:12since artificial intelligence is doing a lot more

0:15than finishing emails.

0:17- Perhaps the biggest nightmare

0:18is the looming new industrial revolution.

0:22- The erosion of the middle class.

0:24Already one of America's most serious problems,

0:28could get much worse with AI if we ignore it.

0:30- [Narrator] Here's how AI is already taking over tasks

0:33at white collar jobs, and why employees and companies

0:36are both excited and concerned for the future of work.

0:43Generative AI can auto complete your sentences,

0:46write feature length films,

0:46or organize your calendar.

0:49And tools using it like ChatGPT

0:51are taking on an increasing role in white collar work.

0:54They can create first drafts of documents,

0:56presentations, images, video, and product designs.

1:00Currently, 25% of work tasks could be automated

1:03by AI in the US according to Goldman Sachs research.

1:07Generative AI helped make this ad, and this one too.

1:11The company advertised here said creating the image

1:14for this AI generated ad cost about 10 times less

1:18than traditional methods.

1:19- This works much in the same way as other kinds of AI,

1:23which are using statistical methods

1:26on large amounts of data,

1:28processing that through computational power,

1:30and then generating out a computer vision system

1:33that says this image looks a lot like these other cats

1:36that I've been trained on.

1:38Generative AI is functionally very similar.

1:41- [Narrator] It goes beyond creating images.

1:44Alphabet is now using AI to run

1:46anti-money laundering surveillance programs

1:48at banks like HSBC, and says it's cutting out human error.

1:53- [Presenter] And when the transactional data

1:54and illicit behaviors change, as they do,

1:57so does the AML AI engine.

2:01- [Narrator] For some tech companies,

2:02AI is contributing to job cuts.

2:04A May report said nearly 4,000 tech workers

2:08lost their jobs to AI.

2:09Artificial Intelligence is also

2:11eliminating future positions.

2:13Take IBM as an example.

2:15Its CEO said the company could replace workers with AI.

2:19- I do believe that AI is going to replace a lot

2:22of what I'm calling white collar clerical jobs.

2:25So the ones that are much more repetitive,

2:28the ones that people do the same task

2:29again and again and again,

2:31I think a good 30% of those roles

2:33could go away over five years.

2:35- Companies are making evaluations about future hiring

2:39on the basis of what they project AI to be capable of doing.

2:44That's a much more tenuous area.

2:46- [Narrator] An IBM spokesman said the company

2:47was still hiring for thousands of positions.

2:50- I think that what we've seen in past deployments of AI

2:53is that it's frequently used as a justification for layoffs,

2:57but it doesn't necessarily mean

2:59that it is effectively replacing

3:01what human workers are capable of,

3:04or that it's increasing workers' productivity.

3:07- [Narrator] Dropbox laid off 16% of its workforce in April,

3:11but not to replace workers.

3:12Like IBM, it said it wanted to invest more in AI,

3:16which meant cutting elsewhere.

3:18- So we see demand growing for these products a lot faster

3:22than we could have anticipated,

3:23and I think you could have seen the technology coming

3:25but just the way that the interest went vertical

3:28is something that's way ahead of schedule

3:31from our expectations.

3:32- [Narrator] At OpenAI, execs say there may be more work.

3:35- I think that like the kind of sum total

3:38of what is going to be needed to make use of the technology

3:42as a maximally productive technology,

3:44and kind of inflect that productivity curve

3:47up in the world will actually require

3:49more man hours on top than you think.

3:52- But across industries, workers and executives

3:55are cautiously looking ahead.

4:00AI's role in television and film production

4:03is a key point of negotiations

4:04between the Writers Guild of America and the studios.

4:08(protesters chanting)

4:10Speaking to the "Wall Street Journal" about the strike,

4:12the co-showrunner for the "Handmaid's Tale"

4:14laid out the writers union's concerns.

4:17- You know, we could tell from the negotiations

4:20that the studios wanted, to had a plan,

4:23and we could deduce that that plan was probably

4:28one writer in a room with one or two machines

4:31creating an entire show.

4:33- [Narrator] Studios have said they're committed

4:35to discussing the use of AI with the WGA.

4:38- The WGA strike I think is a really important moment

4:43to be paying attention to because it's a place where workers

4:47have taken the forefront in putting AI

4:50at the front and center of their negotiations

4:52about their working conditions.

4:54- If it's coming for us, the creators of imaginary worlds,

4:58it is literally going to come for everyone.

5:02- [Narrator] But there may still be time to figure out

5:04how to best integrate AI into the workplace.

5:07- So I think it's really important

5:08that in the present moment, we preserve space

5:11for a public conversation around the deployment

5:14of AI systems that ensures that they're working

5:16in the public interest, in workers' interest,

5:19and as well as in employers' interest.

5:23(upbeat bright music)